1 John 2: 15-17
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Commentary:
In this passage of scripture we are told “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”. This passage of scripture concerns me because I love many things of this world. I admit it. I love my family and if I didn’t live in this world, in mortality, I would not be able to have a wife and children. I love a good BBQ. I love a good chicken or steak dinner. I love sipping on an ice cold cherry coke on a hot summer afternoon. I love a good action movie or a good inspirational movie where good triumphs over evil etc.
“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. I love many aspect of the world so according to this passage of scripture the love of the Father is not in me. I admit quickly and freely I am not perfect but I do feel like the love of God is in me to some degree. Am I wrong? I don’t think so because I have felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to me that God lives and answers prayers. I have felt a divine witness that Jesus Christ suffered and died for my sins and was resurrected.
Can their be things in the world that are not worldly but righteous and spiritual? I think the answer is yes. Part of my personal reasoning is due to what verse 16 says:
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
If we avoid the worldly lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and have nothing to do with it then we are avoiding in part the “Love of the world”.
If we do not have pride (where pride is defined as we prefer our own course of action over the Lords will or we interpret the scriptures to make the scripture says what we want them to say rather than what God intends for them to say.)
So if we avoid lust, pride and the tempatations to sin and repent when we come up short then we can be in the world but not of the world and be on the side of righteousness.
As verse 17 states that eventually the world will pass away and all the worldly wicked things associated with the world will pass away. He who is worldly and enjoys pride and the lusts of the world will pass away to an unrighteous judgement.
But “he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”. So we can be in the world but not of the world. As long as we live our life righteously and with temperance and we are found doing the will of God we will abide with God forever.
How do we know what the will of God is? When was the last time you read meaningfully from the Holy Scriptures? When was the last time you likened the scriptures to yourself and applied the teachings of the Lord to your every day life?
The key to doing will will of the Lord is to understand the will of the Lord. The will of God and His Son is found throughout the sacred Scriptures. We must read from them. Not just at Church and Sunday School but everyday. As we read from the scriptures we need to ask ourselves how does this verse or passage apply to me?
One big hint in doing the will of the Lord in this life and avoiding the pride and lust of this life is to be found in serving others. “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.” That verse and many, many more deal with serving your fellow man.
Start at home and serve your wife or husband. Serve your kinds. “Provoke not your children to wrath” If their is any abuse get help and stop now! Treat your family like the most precious possession you can have because they are exactly that. The most precious thing you can have outside of living with God. Imagine living with God in the company of your family. Start at home. Your family is your first repsonibility.
When involved in service do it with humility, “do not let he left hand know what the right hand doeth”. Do not serve to be recognized of Man. Serve to store treasures up in Heaven where moth nor rust doth corrupt.
There are countless reasons to serve. In my opinion I see the two most important reasons to serve are; 1. Because Heavenly Father told us to and 2. Because when we are “anxiously involved in a good cause” we are less likely to be tempted and follow after wanton eyes. Service is a fantastic way to avoid the unrighteous things of this world. Service helps to lift us up toward God while living in this world. When serving our fellow man we are literally serving our glorious God.
Many have entertained angels unawares because sometimes those angels are our fellow man serving us.
Go forth living righteously, with temperance, repentance and service.
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Love Not The World But Love Righteousness and Service
1 John 2: 15-17
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Commentary:
In this passage of scripture we are told “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”. This passage of scripture concerns me because I love many things of this world. I admit it. I love my family and if I didn’t live in this world, in mortality, I would not be able to have a wife and children. I love a good BBQ. I love a good chicken or steak dinner. I love sipping on an ice cold cherry coke on a hot summer afternoon. I love a good action movie or a good inspirational movie where good triumphs over evil etc.
“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. I love many aspect of the world so according to this passage of scripture the love of the Father is not in me. I admit quickly and freely I am not perfect but I do feel like the love of God is in me to some degree. Am I wrong? I don’t think so because I have felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to me that God lives and answers prayers. I have felt a divine witness that Jesus Christ suffered and died for my sins and was resurrected.
Can their be things in the world that are not worldly but righteous and spiritual? I think the answer is yes. Part of my personal reasoning is due to what verse 16 says:
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
If we avoid the worldly lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and have nothing to do with it then we are avoiding in part the “Love of the world”.
If we do not have pride (where pride is defined as we prefer our own course of action over the Lords will or we interpret the scriptures to make the scripture says what we want them to say rather than what God intends for them to say.)
So if we avoid lust, pride and the tempatations to sin and repent when we come up short then we can be in the world but not of the world and be on the side of righteousness.
As verse 17 states that eventually the world will pass away and all the worldly wicked things associated with the world will pass away. He who is worldly and enjoys pride and the lusts of the world will pass away to an unrighteous judgement.
But “he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”. So we can be in the world but not of the world. As long as we live our life righteously and with temperance and we are found doing the will of God we will abide with God forever.
How do we know what the will of God is? When was the last time you read meaningfully from the Holy Scriptures? When was the last time you likened the scriptures to yourself and applied the teachings of the Lord to your every day life?
The key to doing will will of the Lord is to understand the will of the Lord. The will of God and His Son is found throughout the sacred Scriptures. We must read from them. Not just at Church and Sunday School but everyday. As we read from the scriptures we need to ask ourselves how does this verse or passage apply to me?
One big hint in doing the will of the Lord in this life and avoiding the pride and lust of this life is to be found in serving others. “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.” That verse and many, many more deal with serving your fellow man.
Start at home and serve your wife or husband. Serve your kinds. “Provoke not your children to wrath” If their is any abuse get help and stop now! Treat your family like the most precious possession you can have because they are exactly that. The most precious thing you can have outside of living with God. Imagine living with God in the company of your family. Start at home. Your family is your first repsonibility.
When involved in service do it with humility, “do not let he left hand know what the right hand doeth”. Do not serve to be recognized of Man. Serve to store treasures up in Heaven where moth nor rust doth corrupt.
There are countless reasons to serve. In my opinion I see the two most important reasons to serve are; 1. Because Heavenly Father told us to and 2. Because when we are “anxiously involved in a good cause” we are less likely to be tempted and follow after wanton eyes. Service is a fantastic way to avoid the unrighteous things of this world. Service helps to lift us up toward God while living in this world. When serving our fellow man we are literally serving our glorious God.
Many have entertained angels unawares because sometimes those angels are our fellow man serving us.
Go forth living righteously, with temperance, repentance and service.
Filed under: 1 John, Inspirational, Service | Tagged: abuse, Anglican Church in America, Apostolic Church, Baptist, BBQ, bible, Catholic, chicken, children, Christ, Christian Science, Church, Church of Christ Scientists, Church of England, commentary, Community of Christ. Religion, corrupt, doeth, Eastern Othordox, Episcopal, Evangelicalism, eyes, Faith, family, father, flesh, God, Godhead, good works, Grace, hand, heaven, Heavenly Father, Holy Bible, Holy Ghost, humility, Husband, ice cold cherry coke. summer, Inspiration, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, LDS, least, left, life, live, Love, lust, Lutheran, man, Methodists, Mormon, moth, movie, movies, my brethren, of, Oriental Orthodox, Pentacostal, Presbyterian, pride, Protestant, Redeemer, repent, repentance, Resurrected, Revelation, Righetous, right, righteousness, Romanian Othodox, Russian Orthodox, rust, salvation, Savior, scripture, Scriptures, serve, Service, Seventh Day Adventist, spirit, spiritual, Steak dinner, study, Sunday School, tempatations, temperance, temperate, testimony, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these, things, truth, Truth. Repent, Unity Church, wife, will, witness, women, works, world, worldy